Shetland : Native to The Shetland Islands Scotland since the 8th century

Photo from poster www.rbst.org.uk

This was a really dirty fleece and I had to give it a bit of a pounding, but the staple measures 4.5 – 5ins and has a very fine crimp with some really individual locks. It has teased out well and I think this should be one of the easiest to spin from the ball of fibre (we shall see).

Shetland Fibre

I actually think this was harder to spin because of the very fine crimp! Although it was a lovely puff ball of fibre and was really soft and fuzzy, it was still rather sore on the fingers when drafting and you could still see individual crimp structure when spinning it.

Shetland Yarn

The singles still had some wee curls and crimpy bits when Navajo plying and was quite uneven in diameter of the finished plied yarn, but I think the fact that it was a coloured fleece actually hid the unevenness of the plied yarn well.

Shetland Knitted Sample

I chose 4.5mm knitting needles for this sample, and it did knit up well and was comfortable on the hand, but you could still see the odd bump in the finished sample, which I would still be happy to wear if it was knitted into a sweater. It might not be worn as my Sunday best but it would be worn!

Because this was quite hard on the fingers I would probably card or comb it before spinning. For this experiment I gave it 6/10